Infolife
Imagining a world where information has physical form.
To us, thoughts and information are unreal- we see their influence, but not their form. We keep information in patterns, in symbols, in the space between neurons. All of these are impression molds of something without physical form- instructions for how to reproduce information, but not the information itself.
The field of Memetics is often panned as pseudoscience due to the fruitless search for a physical embodiment of information; a “replicator” to serve as an analog to biological genes. Though we can very much observe the effect of information on the procession of biological life and evolution, we have not been successful in locating any physical outlet. This article is a thought experiment to imagine a reality where informational replicators are both real and tangible.
Let us imagine, for a moment, a projection that sits atop our reality. A plane of existence in which the information we store and share every day has physical form. The informational plane. The Infoplane.
Rules For Infolife
There is life in the Infoplane. Informational life. Infolife.
Infolife’s form is dictated by an essential, underlying structure- similar to our own DNA. This structure’s analogs to the nucleotides in our genome are the basic elements of symbology and communication which make information persistent and reproducible. Spoken word, written language, the shape of a synapse- the negatives of our impression molds are tangible here.
The infobiological equivalent of a unicellular organism is something like a fact or a phrase- atomic information that reproduces by being related or remembered.
The infobiological equivalent of a multicellular organism is something like a discipline, a canon, or a religion- a set of facts and atomic knowledge that all work in concert to form a greater whole.
Miscommunication and misinterpretation in the physical plane is analogous to gene mutation in the Infoplane, carrying with it the same potential for infolife’s adaptation and selection as our own genetic code.
A game of telephone can grossly alter the content of a message, making it incomprehensible- something like a deleterious mutation. A disagreement in the interpretation of a scripture or constitution can lead to a schism- something like a speciation event.
The Infobiome
Much like our own world, Infolife has evolved to live in many different environments on the Infoplane, mirroring the different mediums of storage and communication in the physical world. The physical differences in rate and integrity of communication and storage between these mediums in our own world translate to significant differences in infolife’s evolution between biomes:
Biological mediums of information are slow to reproduce, and less volatile due to physical DNA’s evolved error correction.
Perceptual mediums are mostly subsets of biological mediums, infolife here is short-lived, and unlikely to procreate and adapt unless physically recorded into another medium, such as memory.
Mental/conceptual mediums represent a saltatory leap in the speed of iteration on information, and thus see increased complexity in their infofauna.
Spoken word has a slower rate of informational reproduction with a higher likelihood of transcription errors and very brief lifespan, resulting in dramatic changes between shorter generations.
The written word is less error-prone than the spoken word, and longer lived. Creating more stable lineages of infolife with complex anatomy layered over many generations.
Digital mediums of information and storage transfer are by far the least mutable, the fastest reproducing, and are relatively long-living. As a result, rapid iteration and proliferation of clonal ideas is the name of the game. This produces a higher density of infolife with low variation between generations.
Movement & Speciation
Nothing locks a species of infolife into one biome or the other, but translation into a new informational medium may represent adaptation or development of that information into another species. An example might be the sensory perception of a mystic being related and passed down verbally as a story, copied down as a religious text, and eventually codified as a parable in a religious canon.
Every step along the way, new infolife is produced conceptually in the minds of humans who consume this information. That conceptual infolife can in turn be passed on in the form of communication (verbal, writing, etc.), spawning new lineages and species from diverging understandings or interpretations. Martin Luther had different thoughts about the underlying information conveyed in Catholicism’s religious texts, which led to the creation of whole new informational organisms.
In much the same way here, I’m reiterating points already made by others before me in new language that I find more digestible. Though a product of the same ancestry, it’s a different species, or at least a different race, of memetics.
Why Does This Matter?
This distinction matters to me because one of the core tenets of this blog and my philosophy is that societies are organisms. Also, that organisms are not individual species, but rafts of cooperating ones. Here are some examples from prior posts:
In “Symbiogenesis…” I review Lynn Margulis’ fringe theory that speciation events actually occur due to the formation of new symbiotic relationships in nature, such as endosymbiosis, where the symbiotic link between mitochondria and prokaryotic cells enabled the creation of eukaryotic, multicellular life:
In “You are parasitising your body…” I talk about “humans” as infolife that’s formed a symbiotic relationship with homo-sapiens:
In “What are social vehicles anyways?” I review how infolife in partnership with physical infrastructure determines the shape of our society:
In “The Cultural Microbiome” I elaborate on how group selection works within complex infolife to maintain a status quo and prevent mass change from within:
“Abstraction and Informational Mediums” is sort of the proto-version of the article you are reading now. It’s focused more on the physical world, as opposed to the infoplane:
“EOSV; TLDR” was a clumsy first attempt at a general statement of this philosophy. It touches on how these ideas can begin to slot together, and points to a potential for affecting societal change via an informational hygiene (think germ theory and washing our hands before delivering babies, but with how we communicate and midwife our ideas):
We’re all cells in the gut of massive informational beasts, and conceptualizing them as real animals rather than intangible concepts is the first step in taming them. All of these articles are me turning over pieces of the puzzle; thinking through the hold infolife has over the physical world, and what changes we can make in our everyday interactions to improve the circumstances of your average person through husbandry of the informational life that steers our society.
This post is far from complete, but I hope I’ve given you some food for thought. Let me know in the comments if you have any good suggested reading, additions, or criticisms. It’s all welcome!
Well damn, most people never really notice. I'm impressed you managed it with what appears to be your sanity mostly intact. Bravo.